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page.

I wonder if anyone can help me. I've been searching for a copy of this
book (Orchids of Madagascar by David Du Puy) for a colleague who
needed it by April, and whilst it's (apparently) available on Amazon,
I'm wary of their 4-6 week delivery estimate after a couple of bad
experiences.

I can't find it in such useful places as the Kew shop. But if anyone
has any thoughts on other London based shops worth looking in, I'm open
to ideas.

Francis, you may not consider RHS Kew or Wisley as being 'natural' but I
think they both have them in their grounds. Also there is a Wildlife Garden
on the South Bankthat has British Orchids. Contact the OSGB at
www.orchid-society-gb.org.uk. Why not join.
Regards

Jordan Steele, who has been most kind to me during my
stays in Miami, has offered me the use of his machine
so that I can say hello to you all and apapologise for
the problems that you have suffered in trying to send
emails to me recently.
Shortly before I left Portugal, I tried to send an
email to myself at my Freenet address in the UK. To my
surprise, it was returned to me. I promptly checked
with Freenet who told me that my email box had been
closed down because it had not been used for 3 months.
"Oh", I said, "Then you will no longer have been
collecting my monthly fee which is paid by direct
debit?" "Oh yes, we are still collecting the monthly
fee, they said!" "Not any more", I told them "because
I am discontinuing the service immediately. What you
have done is disgraceful". So now I am about to move,
following Geoff's suggestion, to ukukonline but it
will take a day or two because I had to await the
arrival of the new modem. It has now arrived but I
cannot instal it until I get back to Bath. I am
travelling today on an overnight flight and shall
arrive in Bath around 10 am tomorrow morning, 2nd
March.
My new address in Bath will be:-

I have taken about 250 photos during a 3-week trip,
including Miami, Naples (Florida) and Havana, so I
shall be kept very busy before we drive off to Dijon
for the show and a few days touring in the area.
Jordan and Margaret Steele have been wonderful hosts
but then he is an orchid enthusiast and Rotarian, as I
am, so we should get on very well! And we have.

When you are curling up in your comfortable beds
tonight, think of me, ploughing through the night over
the Atlantic. It will make you sleep much better!
Best regards
Ron

I am trying to make contact, [E-mail, hopefully] or otherwise with an ex member of the 'Test Valley Orchid Society' of many years ago. The person is Ted Murdler. Hope I have spelt his surname correctly.

Ted left the Southampton area, and I did meet him once some years ago. I think he now lives in the East Hampshire/West Sussex area, and I believe he is a member of one of the area Orchid Societies.

I also think that Mr. and Mrs. Firth no of him and his whereabouts. Damned if I can remember there christian names. Aha, the little grey cells are working..........Maria Firth?! and ?? was it Garry??

Oh", I said, "Then you will no longer have been
collecting my monthly fee which is paid by direct
debit?" "Oh yes, we are still collecting the monthly
fee, they said!" "Not any more", I told them "because
I am discontinuing the service immediately. What you
have done is disgraceful".

The modern world !!! Progress !!! Thank goodness we still have amateur orchid growers and members of our Club.

Couple of days ago I stopped and had a chat with a couple of local 'lads' who were 'Hedge Laying', lovely neat job, slows the world down.

Here's the first 10 of some photos I took of last weekend's show in Bournemouth!

The names of the plants are shown in the names of the files, and if anyone can help identify the Oncidium, the Pleurothallid, and the Epidendrum, I should be most grateful to hear from you. Let me know if there are any mistakes in the names, too.

You will find Maria and Gary Firth via the OSGB site/journal - they run one
of their groups at Haywards Heath ot thereabouts (M East Sussex Group ? ) If
still stuck e-mail me privately and I'll let you have their address.
Geoff

Roger Grier wrote:

Evenin' all,

I am trying to make contact, [E-mail, hopefully] or otherwise with an ex
member of the 'Test Valley Orchid Society' of many years ago. The person is
Ted Murdler. Hope I have spelt his surname correctly.

Ted left the Southampton area, and I did meet him once some years ago. I
think he now lives in the East Hampshire/West Sussex area, and I believe he
is a member of one of the area Orchid Societies.

I also think that Mr. and Mrs. Firth no of him and his whereabouts.
Damned if I can remember there christian names. Aha, the little grey cells
are working..........Maria Firth?! and ?? was it Garry??

The epidendrum is capricornus , or perhaps capricorneum to make the endings
consistent. I think it was one of Colin Carters plants , and I had a chat
with him about it ; if you want it, the only source of supply I know is JL
in Connecticut . (I had one myself , but never did anywhere near as well as
Colin has - and it is still getting better each year he tells me ) Mine has
now gone to thatgreat orchidarium in the sky, to jopin one or two more of my
one-time plants...still, thats good for trade .

The oncidium is uro-skinneri . Actually, people are splitting up Oncidium
into a dozen genera , and certainly it is true that this species is more
compatible with odontoglossums than wiith most other oncidiums - ithas been
tried for hybridising quite extensively, due to the splendid lip ( this is a
rather highly coloured form - which may be good culture). Most times it
doesn't take, or produces duds - I have flowered quite a few coming from an
Aussie breeder , and dumped most of them.

The pleurothallid is a masdevallia which I have (also) grown in the past ;
probably one of the triquetrous ones my memory says l, but unless I am lucky
to have a labelled slide - and that would take an hour or two to even find
before I start looking for the label , I cannot be more specific.

Can any of our members help please? An orchid friend in Australia is asking if any of us know a Max Hopkinson? He grows alot of Catasetums and lives in Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottingham? Emails are being returned as 'unknown' and after years of writing my friend has no way of corresponding with him. - Thanks - Jean

Max holds the National Collection of Catestums, and his address can be found
from NCCPG via their site - or their directory - which personally I regard
as an essential on my shelf of gardening books ( I am a bit prejudiced, as a
Collection Holder myself )and I recommend it to anyone who has a garen and
is serious about it.

Again , if stuck , e-mail me privately.
Geof

Jean wrote:

Can any of our members help please? An orchid friend in Australia is
asking if any of us know a Max Hopkinson? He grows alot of Catasetums and
lives in Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottingham? Emails are being returned as
'unknown' and after years of writing my friend has no way of corresponding
with him. - Thanks - Jean

And on this line, I just my copy of the new edition of a County Wild Life
Trust , and opening at random ( it describes what are the special gems at
each of the many reserves )... "down by the southern end of the reserve,
there is a stand having as many as 100 Early Spider Orchids, and over a
thousand Pyramidal orchids"....

Geoff

Beccy Holmes wrote:

I feel sure you would be informing many of us and boring few. And, if there
are members not interested in the subject then the subject line will be a
give away.

Thanks for the various responses about our recent disaster in the cool
house. Naturally it happened on the coldest night so far this winter!

It highlighted two things.

1) Some of you suggested we get a frost-warning device, which is a good
idea, but a warning is only useful if we have an alternative method of
heating which can be quickly deployed... We are an all-electric house so
what do we use as back-up? Paraffin is not an option and neighbours would
not appreciate a generator!

2) There seems to be a marked lack of professional growers who have a range
of cool growing plants. Just adds to the joy of growing orchids I suppose.

I have two separate electrical supplies to the greenhouse (from separate
fuses/RCBs in the house).
These run two separate systems in the greenhouse. One has a heater,
ventilator and humidifier and is as simple and up to date as possible. The
other has duplicates of these plus whatever other equipment is required.
Hopefully this guards against any equipment failure.

I also have a Bio Green propane gas heater (no electricity required) set a
few degrees below the lowest electric heater setting. A pilot flame keeps
it ready and waiting. This is intended to guard against power failure. This
was put to the test a few weeks ago when we lost power on a very cold night
for 6 hours. The gas heater worked, but without circulation fans the heat
shot to the top of the greenhouse and cooked a few more delicate hanging
plants. I ended up in there flapping a sheet of cardboard for a few hours,
and had to open the door a crack to give enough ventilation but at least
nothing froze.

Now I am thinking a small generator to keep vent fans, humidifiers and
circulation fans going would complete the ability to keep things running
whatever happens.

Tricia, if you are all electric, what do you do if there is a power cut?
I've spent much of the last few weeks thinking about heating as I'm
trying to move my cyclamen species collection and it was found that in
the move the thermostat was failing so I am using fan heaters rather
than a tubular heater. Like you, I have no non electrical back up. Me,
I'm thinking of a paraffin heater.

Hi Tricia,
re 1; 'weather' stations can be purchased from Aldi at about 17 pounds. They
give temperature and humidity for the room they're in and for wherever the
radio-remote sensor is (in my greenhouse). They can also provide too-high or
too low settable temp alarms. You may need a degree or two or be under seven
to set one up but they do work.

We had a power trip on a cold night in January and temps dropped from circa
18C to 5C. Some bud damage.
There's no answer to external power failure (power outage seems to be the
21stC language for that) but we have a duplicate heater ready set to go if
the usual one should fail due to a problem of our own making.

I would have thought a generator acceptable (they're pretty quiet but not of
many Kw) if neighbours, too, were cut off If not, simply have a duplicate
heater and reset the trip or repair the fuse.

Incidentally, in this connection, beware of cable fatigue in fans with an
oscillating mechanism. That was our problem, followed by a short and a trip.
John Stanley

Tricia, For many years, whilst at NHOS I used calor gas with very few
mishaps. Those I did have were because I did not clean the burner. I still
have the burner and bottles and you have reminded me to get them out and
clean them up. Regards

Tricia, It would seem that your only alternative is bottled gas. I
personally do not use it but I have a friend who does and it is
satisfactory. Regards, Ronbow

"Tricia Garner" wrote:

> Thanks for the various responses about our recent disaster in the cool
> house. Naturally it happened on the coldest night so far this winter!
>
> It highlighted two things.
>
> 1) Some of you suggested we get a frost-warning device, which is a good
> idea, but a warning is only useful if we have an alternative method of
> heating which can be quickly deployed... We are an all-electric house so
> what do we use as back-up? Paraffin is not an option and neighbours would
> not appreciate a generator!

Regarding European native Orchids there is an article in the last issue
of "Die Orchidee" the magazine of the DOG (Deutsche Orchideen
Gesellschaft). The author Mr Stefan Kattari fil a student of biology in
Munich reported about native orchids in the border region between
Germany (Bavaria) and Austria (Tyrol). Spiranthes aestivalis is one of
the orchids he has found there in some few exemplars and it is in entire
Germany threatened by extinction too.
He wrote about the habitat and I try to quote "...In the treated area
the Summer Lady's Tresses is be founded nearly solely in fens at silted
up banks of lakes. The habitats are very moist and there is beside
occasionally sparse reed a very low cover of vegetation even full of
gaps. A certain content of limestone is taken for granted. The sensitive
species can't stand shade and to dense vegetation...."
Period of flowering: late July till mid August
Altitude of the habitat in Bavaria: till 830 m above sea level
I'll send a copy of the article and some photos to your private e-mail
address. I hope that will help you.
Best Regards from cold Germany, Rudolf.

If you can organise a mains gas supply, there are several heaters which do
not require an electrical connection , and which can be a reliable back-up.
And if you want a more sophisticated mains gas heater , then electrical
back-ups using a car battery and an inverter are not too expensive -
compared to a new orchid collection.....
Can the mains gas fail ? Well of course that is a theoretical possibility ,
but the consequences are so horrendous ( every house/factory etc connected
to the main would have to be visited by the suppliers , and vented, before
it could be reconnected - or risk an explosion etc ) that it is the least
likely chance .

Tricia, if you are all electric, what do you do if there is a power cut?
I've spent much of the last few weeks thinking about heating as I'm
trying to move my cyclamen species collection and it was found that in
the move the thermostat was failing so I am using fan heaters rather
than a tubular heater. Like you, I have no non electrical back up. Me,
I'm thinking of a paraffin heater.

Geoff - many thanks for the info about national collections. I found the
email address of the person I was looking for and have been able to send it
on to my friend. I just knew I could rely on one of our members to help out.
Thanks again - Jean

It's a lovely Dend. flower Chong-Yee but I can't be of any help. I have two large encyclopedias on species orchids and I can't find a definite match. There are a few very similar in appearance but either the petals are too wide or the lip has different markings so I think it must be a hybrid and it's parents could be two of several that I see here in my book. Jean

> oes anyone have any idea what species this is? Any help would be
> gratefully
> received.
On my book "A field guide to Wild Orchids of Thailand" author:
Nantiya Vaddhanaphuti
Your orchid could be:
Dendrobium Nobile Lindl
Sepal and petals purple to white with purple tips, some have maroon
blotch in the throat with yellow or white border and pale lavender
touch size 5.5 cm
There are some wich are similar of yours. If you want I can scan the
closest sisters :o))
--
Yours faithfully,
Jean-Michel Dufermon,
Mangroves help the reef life <

I cross-pollinated one of my dens with a cut flower
that I was given. It looks as though the pollinia has
now taken, and although it will be a long time until
the seed is ripe, I'm trying to find information on
labs that will germinate the seed for me.

Does anyone knows of a uk based lab that offers this
type of service?

On a different note. If I only have the name of one of
the parents, is it still possible to register the
hybrid when the flowers open (like in a thousand years
time)?

There are a handful of companies, plus a number of amateurs, who have labs and do flasking.

There are generally two ways of going about it.

If the seeds are of something that is of commercial or horticultural interest to the companies / amateurs (read: species, particularly rare species), then you'll generally be able to strike a deal where they take the seed, flask it, give you a flask, and sell the rest. This covers their costs, and probably makes them a little profit.

In your case, it is unlikely there will be any commercial interest in your pod - there is no guarantee that what will come out will be any good (or even any indication what it might look like). So you will likely have to pay for the service.

I don't have the going rates, but get in touch with either Dick Warren of the Equatorial Plant Company, or Simon Pugh-Jones of Writhlington.

(Please don't be offended - I know it's great fun to do pollination, and very rewarding to see the pod develop).

Finally, the Orchid Registrar will only register hybrids of known parents (if either is a hybrid, it must be registered itself). It would defeat the purpose of the register if a hybrid of unidentified parentage were allowed to be registered - no one would never be able to remake the hybrid, and no one could ever tell if a cross they had made (or will make) should have the name. In fact, it would be a one-off.

BTW , years ago , I used to make hybrids and offer the pods to the most
suitable UK nursery -mainly in the Odtna,Wils,Odcm etc range - hence offered
to the 3 nurseries who at least did Odonts and a few Odas... . My standard
terms which were all were happy to accept, were that if the take was good -
so lots of flasks, I had a couple of flasks, and they had the rest ; I had
the right to name the cross. If only a few germinated, I had a few - but
not more than 10% . This was pre 1975 .

More recently someone was happy to accept the same with my multi-flowered
paph crosses , but in the end never finished the lab he was always boasting
about ( at least not yet , and come to think of it, I am not sure he is
still in business..)and the pods went to waste.

And most rccently of all I have been looking for someone to raise any new
pods I might make - mostly multi-generic Oncidiniae crosses , but I have not
tried very hard yet.

ALWAYS remember that it is very easy to put the pollen on and ( sometimes)
get a seed pod, but it takes a lot out of your plant . If it's a weak plant
, the chance of the seed being infertile is great ; and the chance of also
killing the plant is also great. You need to say "is it worth it " ?

For species I always send the pod to Dick Warren - if I pick up a pod from a
plant on the jungle floor for example, and I don't try to make conditions ;
but Dick sends me a dozen plantlets later on when he starts to sell them.

Mr. and Mrs. Dadds (Bob and Paddy) used to offer this servivce but they have retired. I am pretty certain that Malcolm Perry took over their facilities so he may do it. He is at the Puxton, Somerset Nursery. I'll do a search and see what I come up with - Jean

I'm pretty sure that the plant is strong enought to
support one seed pod (the second flower never took the
pollen, so only one seed pod will be produced). This
Den. grew a cane of about 16" (and that's because it
fell off and snapped the upper 5" of the cane). I did
not expected any flowers from it because it was
snapped like that, but the cane was fat and tall, and
it surprised me with a spike growing off the side,
with 9 beautiful, pure white flowers, about 2.5-3"
accross.

The only problem is I don't know the name of the
pollen plant, as it was given to me. It was a Den.
phalaenopsis type (like mine), with purple petals and
lips, and white sepals.

I thought that this mixture could give interesting
offspring, and that is why I cross-pollinated.

Cheers,

Francis.

PS this is my first go at actually cross-poliinating,
and it would be nice to see if the results are of any
interest.

--- Geoffrey Hands
escribió:

> ALWAYS remember that it is very easy to put the
> pollen on and ( sometimes)
> get a seed pod, but it takes a lot out of your plant
> . If it's a weak plant
> , the chance of the seed being infertile is great ;
> and the chance of also
> killing the plant is also great. You need to say "is
> it worth it " ?

I've been a bit out of the loop as I have been in Laos and Thailand for the last month. I saw a lot of orchid plants in Laos but being the cool dry season nothing much was in flower. I ahve attached a picture I took in an orchid farm in southern Thailand - I think they are arandas or something similar - now that's what I call roots!

I came home yesterday to find that Laelia harpophylla had flowered. I am hugely pleased as it is the first orchid I have grown from a flask - these I deflasked nearly 3 years ago.

This little Dendrochilium has also flowered for the first time for me - any idea which species it is? The flowers are about 5mm across and it has no scent.

I will also be in Dijon next weekend. I gather from my brief readings that some of you don't expect it to be a success but I seem to remember someone ages ago suggesting a meeting place. I'd certainly like to put some faces to names and say hello in person.

Geoff one of our members was recently talking to Malcolm Perry and was interested to learn that he is willing to come and talk to us. She has a 'phone number I think so I'll phone her later and if I can contact him I'll ask about the seeds and let you all know.
What beautiful orchids Andy - thanks for sharing the photos you must be pleased with them and what a thrill to see these wonderful orchids in Thailand! - Jean

Well I don't really care about not being able to
register it, it was only curiosity. The real high for
me is to see if I have actually made anything that is
beautiful, as the two parent flowers are rather
pretty.

Hi, I've been thinking of getting a new digital camera to replace an
anchient Sanyo one I have here.

I want it mainly to take plant pics, they will be alpines that are a bit
smaller than many orchids but hardly minute.=20

Quality wise I want something better than can be seen on this page
http://www.markgriffiths.org//Pleionehybrids1.html

I don't want to use a tripod etc and money is tight.

A friend has told me I can get better pics using an Olympus C450 and
they are available from www.digitaldepot.co.uk as refurbished for about
=A3100. I see there are also Olympus C50Z, MJU300 and C5000 within my
budget.=20

I'd be interested in peoples' opinions, will I get better pics? If so
and you know these cameras, which would be the best one to go for?

I am currently researching the latest crop ogf digicams in order to start
work on the 2nd edition of the book I authored " The Handbook of Digital
Photography", so I think I can help..
There is no difficulty at all in getting better quality at a low price -
3million pixesls for £99 is easy-peasy stuff.
For small flowers ( by garden standards) you do need a decent macro facility
, without adding on quality spoiling supplementary lenses. One of the
best - and least-known camera makes for this purpose is Ricoh.
They have a series called Caplio - which focus down to a distance of 2cm yes
, centimetres - in front of the lens. Check them out !
If you want the theoretical ability to produuce 6 foot wide pictures, there
is a Fuji digicam - the F810 - which I have had from Fuji on loan for a few
weeks ( for the book) which does 12 million pixels, and retails at £279 if
you shop around - but it only focuses down to 1/2 meter or so , and the
macro is not that clever - and I have to say that most cameras with
so-called macro are not that clever when it comes to using it.
I currently own three cameras and am thinking of replacing the pocket
compact ( F700) with one of the Ricohs - when I started my personal web-site
7 years ago , I did all the pics for it - several thousand over the first
few years - using the Ricoh 200Z which at "best quality" settting produced a
whole 1/2 million pixel image, but again it used the Ricoh (patented, I
understand) macro facility, and it was extremely reliable.
If I can help further , e-mail me - but I'm in Dijon from 10th-17th.

I'll probably be at the Bournemouth Orchid Society stand (number 90), or at my exhibit of digital orchid photos (in the "Orchids in Art" section). Do drop by and say hello - it will be good to put a face to the name.

I sent you a message from Jordan Steele's computer when I was in
Florida. I hope that you received it. I am asking because I have
received no messages from the list since I got back.
Have you changed my address at the List for when I am in the UK? Please
use the one on this message now and, in future, when I am in the UK.
Actually, Betty and I are driving off to Dijon for the WOC on 10th March
and then returning to Portugal on the 20th March shortly after we get
back so our time in the UK will be very short. Well, after all, I only
came over for a check-up on my eye!
Whilst in Dijon, we shall be staying at the Hostellerie du Chapeau
Rouge.
Ron

Here are some web sites to bookmark and keep around if you are
interested in digital cameras.

http://www.dcresource.com/

http://www.dpreview.com/

http://www.steves-digicams.com/

They do a good job of reviewing cameras and give a more or less
unbiased opinion of the cameras.
I have used them for selecting the cameras I have purchased for
myself, for work, and for friends.

I am an Olympus Fan for the point and shoot camera's I have owned two
of them with no problems. Nikon are also very good we have had
several of them at work for various jobs. I would also recommend
getting a camera that takes AA batteries. They are much easier to buy
around the world that an proprietary battery made just by that
manufacturer.